Sunday, October 28, 2007

Altyazi'ya Bienal Yazisi (Bayraminiz Kiskirmasin)

Untitled ya da İsimsiz

Kısım Bir

26 Eylül 2007 tarihli gazetelerde “Bienal’de Kemalizm Krizi” veya benzeri başlıklarla giren haberler Bienal tartışmalarının yönünü başka bir tarafa kaydırdı. Daha önce nerede işledi, nerede işlemedi veya neden işlemedi gibi sorular sorarken kendimizi yine bir polarizasyonun ortasında buluverdik. İşin en acı tarafı bu polarizasyonun Türkiye’de sanat eğitimi veren başlıca kurumlardan biri olan Marmara Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi’nin dekanı tarafından bilerek ve isteyerek ve hatta büyük ihtimalle dikkati üzerine çekmek için yaratılmış olması. (Çünkü Sayın Dekan ortalığı karıştırdıktan sonra bir daha ortada görünmedi, sorulara cevap vermedi.) Mesele iyi bir gözlemci olan Hanru’nun İstanbul’a gelip ortada varolan gerginliği hissedip kendi araştırmasıyla buna dokunmak istemesinden kaynaklandı. Daha ilk röportajlarından kendisini burada en çarpan şeyin Atatürk’ün her yerdeki varlığı olduğunu söylüyordu. Velhasıl tam da toplum bayraklı, bayrak kırmızısı gösteriler sonrası Kemalistler ve Müslüman burjuva demokratlar ya da Kemalistler ve gelişmelere dur demeyen İkinci Cumhuriyetçiler gibi polarizasyonlar üzerinden gerim gerim gerilmişken, Hanru belki de modernleşme, ulus devletin kuruluşu, devrimlerin yarattığı ikilemler, elitizmin yarattığı bölünmeden söz ederek yerel politik ve sosyal söylem bağlamında gündemin “derin derdi” bir kavramsal çerçeve yazıp birtakım çevrelerin bam teline basıverdi.

Bu metinde kendisine toplumdan gelen cevap yine kendi metninde dile getirdiği uzun süredir gömülmüş ama yeniden popülerleşmeye başlayan etnomerkezcilik, sağ milliyetçilik, ırkçılık, dini tutuculuk üzerinden geldi. Bazı “hassas” internet haber sitelerinde “Çinli Küratör Kendine Gel Evladım”, “Bu da Çin Malı Dangalak,” başlığında verilen haberlerin yanı sıra, popüler haber kanallarının forumlarında bilip bilmeden ne kendisinin Amerikan Çinliliğini bıraktılar, ne de emperyalist güçlerin temsilcisi olmaklığını. Tepkilerdeki ırkçı aşağılamalar utandırıcıydı, elin Çinlisi gitsin kendi memleketindeki sorunlarla uğraşsındı, bizimkilere el atmasındı. Aslında Dekan Nazan Erkmen de Hanru’yu etnik kışkırtma yapmakla suçlayıp böyle hassas zamanlarda “Kemalizm tepeden inmiştir,” gibi ifadelerde bulunmasının saygısızlık olduğunu söylerken tam da bu daha “avam” dilde söylenmiş eleştirileri içeriyordu. Kol kırılır yeni içinde kalır. Yoksa bu ülkede Kurtlar Vadisi neden bu kadar popüler olsun.

Buna benzer bütün tartışmalarda nedense hep aynı insanlar taraf alıyorlar. Kah Hanru gibileri desteklemekle suçlanıyoruz, kah Hrant Dink öldürüldükten sonra sokaklara dökülüp söz konusu “şehitler” olduğu zaman evde oturmakla, kah memleketi kurtarmak için CHP’ye oy vermemekle. Bizi karşı tarafına koyan “hassas” milliyetçi popülist söylem kendi varoluş amacını haklı kılmak için Hrank Dink cinayetiyle Güneydoğu’da öldürülen insanları aynı kefeye koyup, her şeyi kendi söyleminin parçası haline getirmekte beis görmüyor, Kemalizm’i ise çoktan baş fetiş nesnesi haline getirmiş durumda. Burada benim duyduğum en büyük rahatsızlık bu önü alınamayan dalganın sanat çevresine ve hatta sanat öğreten üniversitelere dek sıçramış olması. Geçen günlerde ortaya çıkan UPSD’nin (Uluslararası Plastik Sanat Derneği) Güneydoğu’da yaşananlara ilişkin yayınladığı benzer tondaki basın açıklaması da aynı tehlike çanlarını çalıyor. Aynı dernek düşünce özgürlüğüne en büyük kısıtı götüren 301’ e de karşı çıkmıyor.

Bu düşünme zincirini bir adım daha ileriye götürürsek bana kendini değişen sanat söylemiyle güncelleyemeyen birtakım çevreler kendi kendilerini eleştirmektense, başkalarının da kendilerini eleştirmesini engelleyecek yollara başvuruyorlar gibi geliyor.
Bienal’in bu ülkede yirmi yıldır beslediği güncel sanat kültürünü, açtığı dinamik kanalları bir türlü içselleştiremiyorlar olsa gerek. Aynı fetişleştirici nasyonal populist söylemleri onlar da kullanıyorlar. Ne de olsa Kemalizm, anıtları, değerleri ve söylemleri her zaman dokunulmazlık getiriyor. Çocukluğumun hala hatırladığım örneklerinden biridir, tatil sitesinde evinin önündeki meydanda gençlerin toplanıp gürültü yapmalarını istemeyen bir kadın birkaç hafta içinde meydana bir Atatürk büstü diktirmişti. Böylelikle hakikaten kimse bir daha o meydanda toplanamadı.

Nitekim Marmara Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Dekanı da Bienal’in üzerine giderken başka bir eleştiri üretmeyi değil en koruyucu devlet ideolojisi kalkanını seçiyor. Halbuki Kortun’un bir yazısında yerinde değindiği gibi “Üniversite devlet ideolojisini pekiştirmenin yeri değil, saf entellektüel pratiğin kodlandığı ortamdır.” Bir Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Dekanı’nın sosyal bilimciler ve analizciler tarafından bu ülke ve siyasal, toplumsal pratiği üzerine yirmi otuz yıldır tartışılagelen ve artık gündelik tartışma diline kazandırılmış söylemlerin üzerine gitmesi acı verici. Sanki varolan gerilimlerin üzerinden dikkat çekmek istiyormuşcasına arkası gelmeyen bir tavır. Ne de olsa nasyonel popülist alçak basınç alanının etkisi altındaki bloglarda ve websitelerinde Dekan bu hayırsız Çinliye dur demiş olduğu için tebrik ediliyor. Bu insanların hiçbirinin, Dekan da dahil, gidip Bienal’i merak edip gezdiğini sanmıyorum. Hanru’nun ne demeye çalıştığını anladığını ise hiç sanmıyorum.

Kısım İki

Serginin bütün bu meselelerin gölgesinde kalan okumasına kısaca değinirsek. Türkiye AKP’nin yeniden ve ezici çoğunlukla iktidara gelmesiyle birlikte neo liberal politikalarla demokratik katharsisini yaşama süreci arasında kısılıp kalmış noktada. Tam da burada kendini her zamanki gibi buhranlarıyla tanımlamaktan çok küreselleşme politikalarının tüm dünyada yarattığı açmazların ışığında görmesi gerekiyor. Ama bunun yolu da lokal modernite deneyimlerini enine boyuna ele almaktan geçiyor, diyor Hanru. Bienal basında reklamları -bir PR şirketi tarafından korkunç bir yüzeysellikle hazırlanmış- “Sanat hiç bu kadar iyimser olmamıştı,” sloganıyla yer alıyor, ancak İstanbul zaten herkesin yaşamaya çalışırken olan biteni unutup iyimser olduğu bir şehir. Dört taraf savaş, kötü muamele ve eşitsizlikle çevriliyken hepimize gerekli olan iyimserlik, yani global sisteme karşı direnme ve yaşama alanları, yalnızca böyle bir mantıkla yaşamaya devam edebilen bir şehirde nasıl işler? Güncel sanat bu bağlamda ne tarz direnme stratejileri geliştirir? Böyle meselelerle ilgilenen herkesi heyecanlandıran sorular bunlar. İşleyip işlemedikleri ise başka bir mesele.

Çünkü her ne kadar Hanru kavramsal çerçevesi içerisinde bu şehrin bu zamanı için vurucu modernite sorusunu sorsa da teori ve pratik arasında kopukluk olduğunu ister istemez hissediyoruz bienal mekanlarını dolaşırken. AKM mimaride ütopyanın çöküşü fikrinin içerisine güzelce yerleşiyor, Hanru imzası en çok burada okunuyor. Ama mekanın Türkiye bağlamındaki ideolojik yükü, neo-liberal dönüşümü en fazla hissettirecek ilk zaman nasıl yakıldığı şimdi nasıl yakılmak istendiği arasındaki fark, yaşadığı mutenaştırma krizinin sembolize ettiği polarizasyon ne yazık ki tartışmaya çok girmiyor. İMÇ’deki “Dünya Fabrikası” hizmet üzerinden işleyen ve üreticisini korumayan hızlı liberal politikalar yüzünden kapanmak zorunda kalan boş dükkanlara yerleşmiş. Özellikle beşinci blokta geri kalan dükkanların aksine bienal alanları korkutucu şekilde ışıl ışıl parlıyor. İçine yerleşen Map Office, Tadej Pogacar, Jean-Baptiste Ganne işleri kritik sorular sorsa da mekanların parlaklığında kaybolmaya yüz tutuyor, etkisini yitiriyor, çünkü içinde bulunduğu beyaz kübümtrak odalar içinden İMÇ’nin gerçeğiyle ilişki kurmakta zorlanıyor. Antrepo’da ise şehir manzarası üzerine kurulu bir imgelemle çalışan bir yerleştirme görüyoruz. Arada Extramücadele’nin sınavcı, ezberci zihinleri açacak “Ne Mutlu...Diyene” posterleri gibi çarpıcı, vurucu işler yok değil, bir kısmı yerleştirmeden dolayı kayıp. Sergi bir yandan Huang Yong Ping’in devrilip füzeleşmiş minaresi gibi işlerin yarattığı alanlar üzerinden dışarısıyla ilişki kurmaya çalışıyor, öte yandan kendi içindeki kurgusuyla bu etkileşimin elini kolunu bağlıyor. Santralistanbul dahilinde ise kenara sıkışmış alternatif sanat insiyatifleri Santral binasının koca gövdesi ve gölgesi altında işlemiyor. Uzun lafın kısası Hanru metinde sözünü ettiği direnme alanlarını bize bağlamıyor, onlara uzaktan işaret ediyor.

Dünyanın dört bir yanından sanat profesyonellerinin bir araya geldiği açılışı, açılış haftasında yüzü bulan yan etkinliği ve ilk on gününde ulaştığı izleyici sayısıyla Bienal İstanbul’da her zamankinden daha fazla gündemde. Artık dünyanın kalbur üstü bienalleri arasında kendine hatırı sayılır bir yer edinmiş durumda. Bizimse iki yılda bir hareketlenen bir güncel sanat üretiminden, tartışmasından öteye geçmeye ihtiyacımız var, bunu biliyoruz. Kendini sadece dışarısı için üretmeyen, kendi gündemini ve tartışmasını yaratan bir üretim ortamına. Gerçi yeni açılan, işlemeye başlayan sanatçı insiyatifi mekanlarla nefes alanları oluşmaya başlamış durumda. Ama bazı neo liberal stratejiler sonucu daha fazla özelleşmeye başlayan “kurumsal” güncel sanat işleyişiyle denge sağlamak için bu nefes alanlarını daha da açmak, daha sürdürülebilir ve daha çoğalabilir kılmamız gerekiyor. Ciddi bir kabuk değiştirme sürecindeyiz. Artık yerel güncel sanat üretimi ve tartışması Bienal’imizi ciddi oranda besleyecek bir noktaya gelmeli. Tüm bunlar ise kültür üreticileri olarak adlandırılan bizlerin kültür politikaları üretiminde, kamusalı yönlendirmede daha aktif olmamızı gerektiriyor. 2010 gibi şov biz organizasyonlardan medet ummamayi.

Friday, October 26, 2007

think strategic like a curator and play pool: some "young curators" at pool table in ghent












































as promised to the team!
for the curious, the team formed of Craig Buckley (New York), Sebastian Cichocki (Bytom), Ovul Durmusoglu (Istanbul), Tom Morton (London), Manuela Moscoso (Madrid), Alessandro Rabottini (Milano) and Thibaut "the host" Verhoeven (Ghent). last photo also company by Huib Haye van Der Werf (Amsterdam)

Sadece AKM

Turkish Delight

Laughter, Tears and Rage

Of the three main venues occupied by the Istanbul Biennial, the Atatürk Cultural Centre was the most resonant and contested

image

The feral cats of Istanbul can famously stop traffic with their imperious entrance onto the street’s stage, where they are doted over by flâneurs and tourists alike. So it’s no surprise, ducking out of the Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), where the tenth Istanbul Biennial is in full swing, to discover a tiny adjoining square apparently given over to the city’s beloved felines. I counted 12 lolling in the mid-morning sunlight: proud citizens of their very own late-Modernist civic space, lazily oblivious to the melodrama of aesthetic, commercial and political interests being enacted round the corner. AKM, site and subject of the Biennial’s address to the city’s architectural and cultural future, is also the image of a past that will not lie still.

Of the three main venues occupied by the Biennial, AKM was perhaps the most resonant and contested, as evinced by the title of the exhibition housed there: ‘Burn It or Not?’ In common with other buildings of its era that were conceived as arenas for top-down, state-sanctioned culture – Berlin’s doomed Palast der Republik is the obvious counterpart invoked by the Biennial catalogue – AKM is part Utopian ruin, part development opportunity. The perfect site, in other words, in which to reflect on Turkey’s ambivalent relationship to its Westernizing past and globalized future. But it was hard not to feel that the art on show there, for all its keen sense of the ruination of modernity and Modernism, risked looking tautological. I wasn’t alone, having been dutifully impressed, in wandering off to check out dead light fittings and dormant heating vents. AKM is not just a symbol: it is also, somewhat claustrophobically, the museum of itself.

The building is, in fact, the ghost of a former incarnation. An opera house was completed on the site in 1969; it burnt down during a performance a year later. The replacement, designed by architect Hayati Tabanlioglu with its latticed aluminium and glass façade, vast foyers, travertine floors and gleaming metallic interior walls was completed in 1978. Situated at the eastern side of Taksim Square (it is practically the only building that treats this politically charged palimpsest of civic, religious and commercial structures as an actual square), AKM has since become a nexus for competing visions of late-20th-century secularism, Westernization and state-subsidized culture. Threatened now with demolition – the reasons advanced range from its cultural obsolescence through supposed financial good sense to its apparent vulnerability to earthquakes – the building may well be sacrificed in advance of Istanbul’s becoming a European Capital of Culture in 2010.

Little of this controversy directly impinges as you wander around AKM. In fact, obscurity reigns: all the lights have been switched off, which helps when viewing several video works but means that the sunlight pouring through from the square quickly thins out and finally gives up as you try to get a sense of the deeper reaches of the building. No amount of polite entreaty on the part of Biennial staff will convince the security guards to let me explore the auditoria or descend darkened stairwells to the offices and storage space beneath. Apart from a dispensation for the Biennial, the building is closed for the summer, and so instead I hang around the first-floor foyer, where the huge hanging light fittings are gathering dust and the display cases and notice boards are all empty. Nearby, a security guard has crept into the shadows and fallen fast asleep.

And yet AKM, which looks as though it has been left to die, and which even at the height of the winter opera season is darkened and unused during the day, is also the most public of the buildings in Taksim Square. Even a fleeting visit confirms that its plaza is where teenage couples arrange to meet, aimless smokers dawdle and old women pause to take pity on one-eyed cats. In short, it is part of the life of the city in ways that the republican monuments of the square, or its monstrous international hotels, have never been.

Which is not to say that whatever Utopian potential the building once had can simply be resuscitated in the face of global capital and anti-secular politics. AKM looks out onto a square where 38 people died in 1977 and where still no May Day demonstration is without its casualties. None of that history is likely to be erased by finding a new use for a fading Modernist opera house, however redolent it is of gleaming futures past. With its alluringly dilapidated 1970s’ fixtures, AKM certainly feels like a time machine. But what if the value of a modern ruin (which is essentially what AKM is, though still intact) did not lie in its ability, fully restored, to redeem the recent past? What if its significance lay instead in its power, by its very anachronism, by the extreme confusion of its historical referents, to put the square’s future (Burger King, Hilton, shining metal minarets and all) productively in doubt?

Brian Dillon


http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/turkish_delight/

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Comment on the Future of Generali Foundation and Bawag Foundation

On September 12, 2007, the public was informed by a press release that two Vienna art institutions, the GENERALI Foundation, and BAWAG
Foundation, will merge and be located in the same place. All current
human and structural resources will be consolidated into one
"FOUNDATION(s)QUARTIER GmbH" to be established by the BAWAG, P.S.K.,
and Generali.

The undersigned wish to register their apprehensions regarding this consolidation largely made with respect to economic considerations. We are concerned that two renowned art institutions that have contributed enormously to Vienna’s cultural life will suffer the loss of their credibility. Prior to this decision no advice was sought from experts. Neither the competent international board of the GENERALI Foundation, nor any independent committee of experts was consulted. In the future institution, the artistic director will no longer have budget authority. This can only have negative effects on exhibition and collection activities.
The undersigned appeal to the management of the Generali Versicherung to preserve the integrity of their top-class art collection. It was exactly the GENERALI Foundation’s high-standing public reputation, and the faith in its institutional stability that helped win the trust of internationally renowned artists and galleries. It is for these reasons that the collection today is of international standing. This entails the responsibility to keep it accessible to a wide public.

If you wish to support the statement, please sign here:

http://foundationsquartier.sonance.net/

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Sivas'ta Sosyalist Rap!

check this out!
especially the second one!

http://www.sendika.org/yazi.php?yazi_no=13558

yerin dibine

Agos'a 301'den mahkumiyet
Hukuk devletin, hukuk devletini ruyanizda gorun!
301 kere hayir!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Qui. Enter Atlas II Young Curators International Symposium SMAK Ghent


Qui. Enter Atlas II
Young Curators International Symposium

11 curators under 35 years old coming from all over the world, selected by 15 International Institutions as advisors, give their opinion on the theme ‘Art in the Landscape of the Media’

WHEN
19 and 20 october 2007-10-05 From 9am until 17pm

WHERE
Auditorium Filmplateau
Paddenhoek 3
9000 Ghent

Free entrance, but reservation is obligatory!
Contact for reservation
Thibaut Verhoeven
T +32 (0)9 240 76 26
E thibaut.verhoeven@gent.be


PARTICIPATING CURATORS
Cecilia Alemani (Independent Curator, New York)
Craig Buckley (Independent Curator, New York)
Binna Choi (Curator BAK, Utrecht)
Sebastian Cichocki (Director Kronika, Bytom)
Ovul Durmusoglu (Independent Curator, Vienna/Istanbul)
Nav Haq (Curator Arnolfini, Bristol)
LATITUDES ( Independent Curators and Writers, Barcelona - Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna)
Tom Morton ( Curator and critic Cubitt Gallery, London)
Manuela Moscoso (Director los29enchufes, Madrid)
Huib Haye van der Werf (Advisor Visual arts for the Dutch Government)

Qui. Enter Atlas II is the second part of the symposium Qui. Enter Atlas, which was held in june 2007, at GAMEC (Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) in Bergamo, Italy.

In this colloquium, that was coproduced by GAMEC and S.M.A.K., 15 young international curators, selected by 15 international Art Institutions, discussed the theme ‘Art in the Landscape of the Media’. Mentor and ‘godmother’ during this sessions was the international renowned media-artist Dara Birnbaum.

For Qui. Enter Atlas part II, the young curators were asked again by S.M.A.K. and GAMEC to ‘formalise’ this discussion material from part 1, into a presentation of approximately 45 minutes about the topic ‘Art in the Landscape of the Media’, mixed with their own thoughts and opinions emerging from their daily practice as a young curator.

The detailed symposium programme with the presentations will be online soon.

Curated/Organised by:
Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Alessandro Rabottini (Gamec, Bergamo)
Philippe Van Cauteren and Thibaut Verhoeven (S.M.A.K., Ghent)

Monday, October 8, 2007

Emergency Bells! Immigration, Black Sheep and Swiss Rage

"The posters taped on the walls at a political rally here capture the rawness of Switzerland’s national electoral campaign: three white sheep stand on the Swiss flag as one of them kicks a single black sheep away.

Pascal Lauener/Reuters

A protest against backers of the rightist Swiss People’s Party ended in clashes and tear gas.

Lukas Lehmann/European Pressphoto Agency

Christoph Blocher, the justice minister and the driving force in the rightist Swiss People's Party’s, addressing a crowd in Bern.

“To Create Security,” the poster reads.

"The poster is not the creation of a fringe movement, but of the most powerful party in Switzerland’s federal Parliament and a member of the coalition government, an extreme right-wing party called the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP. It has been distributed in a mass mailing to Swiss households, reproduced in newspapers and magazines and hung as huge billboards across the country.

As voters prepare to go to the polls in a general election on Oct. 21, the poster — and the party’s underlying message — have polarized a country that prides itself on peaceful consensus in politics, neutrality in foreign policy and tolerance in human relations.

Suddenly the campaign has turned into a nationwide debate over the place of immigrants in one of the world’s oldest democracies, and over what it means to be Swiss."



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/world/europe/08swiss.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

Sunday, October 7, 2007

footnote

Adrien Tirtiaux, a young Belgian artist studying in Vienna, wanted to comment on the Biennial. Copying the Biennial work tags, he pointed out to a fire exit at Antrepo for the careful eyes as Alain Posteur. Follow the stairs to heaven, reach the opening, take some fresh air and look at the living city outside. We don't know if the work still works but for your information. Courtesy of the artist.

Alain Posteur/Stairway to Heaven





kulturrise heft 3

Translated into German by Therese Kaufmann. Will be discussed in Marina Griznic's class in the Academy of Fine Arts after their Biennale trip.

Never That Contemporary and Private Before

Övül Durmusoglu


Recently, Forbes magazine sent me an email request for filling up a poll to name the people shaping contemporary art today in Turkey. The interest of such a magazine for finance sector and investors signifies private sector’s involvement with contemporary art. Private sector has always been a main financer of arts since the state doesn’t invest in art in Turkey. However, lately, here and there in Istanbul pops an arts museum with big family names; Istanbul Modern run by Eczacibasis, Pera Museum run by Koc’s, Sabanci Museum run by Sabanci’s, Project 4L run by Can Elgiz and lately Santralistanbul initiated by Oguz Ozerden who is also the founding director of Bilgi University. Koc family announced that they will finance Istanbul Biennial for the next ten years. Rumours say that the amount contracted is not enough for the production of such a huge event but that’s the way it is. Big families want to use art as a PR and branding tool to make their names more associated with culture. With its Biennial attracting over 3000 foreign art professional visitors for its opening, Istanbul has become one of the main attraction points for international culture tourism. Furthermore, it has been chosen for European Capital of Culture 2010. And all these rich families want to create the image that they are on the side of “modernisation” of Turkey by investing in arts and culture.

10th International Istanbul Biennial started with a boom of openings and events last week. There has never been such a high number of allying projects, and even more the quality has never been that satisfactory – which also means there are no off events, everything taking place in Istanbul in terms of contemporary art are under allying projects. Biennial itself has made its statement by leaking into the city with many different projects at different places. The chosen main sites, mainly AKM -Ataturk Cultural Center- and IMC – Istanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı (Istanbul Textile Traders Market) a modernist complex of textile wholesalers and retailers built with the progressive mentality of the fifties- have always been loaded places of modernity and ideology. Both places are the architectural symbolisation of Kemalism based on the very idea of enlightenment. To add, both buildings are under the serious threat of gentrification. This threat can be interpreted in terms of the clash between kemalist elites and new ruling muslim neo-liberal bourgeoisie – who are very keen on privatising state enterprises.

All museums opened their exhibitions in the opening week for international guests. There was an obvious race among them to attract more people. It looked like everybody made their best to benefit from the attention Istanbul gets during the Biennial. In the opening reception, a man was carrying a sign to take people to the shuttle boat for the opening at Sabanci Museum but “invitation only”. The brochures of Istanbul 2010 organisation was even more remarkable “This September is sort of a sneak preview of what is to come in 2010 in a micro scale”

AKM Irony

While Istanbul 2010 makes popular claims of accomplishments in many fields, we are suffering for the lack of cultural policies and public funding. And private sector’s taking over in arts has become threatening. Just before chosen as a biennial site, AKM has been defined as useless by the previous ministry of culture and tourism. Built in the late sixties, AKM is a huge complex with a concert hall, holding the offices of State Opera as well. The building in the center of Taksim Square is obviously a target for private sector for building a more “profiting” hotel or shopping mall. Taksim area itself has been experiencing a major gentrification process lately. In this framework, the statement of cultural ministry can only be explained as a call to private hands. A huge number of artists and intellectuals got together in front of AKM to protest the coming decision of being torn down claiming that AKM as a site of culture should protect its place at Taksim Square. A deep irony. The advertising poster in the standing vitrine in front of AKM was for Sabanci Museum’s “Blind Date” show in cooperation with Deutsche Bank whose first major activity was sponsoring a contemporary art fair “Contemporary” in Istanbul. This juxtaposition signifies the situation of culture policies in Istanbul at the moment.

In the meantime, the government has changed. The ministries of culture and tourism are again separated. The ministry of culture is given to the only person coming from a social democrat background among the muslim democrats of AKP. Our newly elected president chose a burocrat previously operating in an important position at ministry of culture and tourism. The new minister of culture gave an opening speech at the public opening reception of the Biennial. These may be read as the signs of a closer involvement of state with arts on the eve of 2010. But not to forget, Istanbul Modern was opened early with the pressure of the government. It was just before the declaration of future possible membership negotiations by EU. Santralistanbul had to make a pre-opening as well, it was just before the elections. There is no effort from government’s side for sustainable culture and arts policies, however they obviously push privately run art institutions. A good make up in place of sustainable policies?

Optimism in the time of European Capital of Culture

The local discussions during the opening week of Biennial were dominated by the opening of Santralistanbul and the history of Biennials exhibition in Istanbul Modern. Santralistanbul were lanced as Centre Pompidou of Istanbul. Now with its second director David Elliott leaving its position, Istanbul Modern from the beginning reminds everybody of Tate Modern as a project. Rather than creating their own identities, both instiutions look after some big and cliche Western examples. Santralistanbul started with an exhibition titled “Modern and Beyond”, a chronological exhibition of modern art in Turkey starting with twenties ending up by the end of nineties. Istanbul Modern brought together selections from the previous biennials by their curators. At Santralistanbul, some international guests walking among the crowded art pieces asked whether it was a permanent collection or temporary exhibition. In an interview, the curatorial crew of the exhibition stated that the exhibition wouldn’t be possible without the pieces taken from Istanbul State Painting and Sculpture Museum. It was impossible to bring pieces from the state collection of arts in Ankara. And they tried not to ask help from Izmir.

The story is heard strange from afar. There has been a state collection of arts started in the thirties. The museum of that collection runs under very difficult conditions and is mostly unattended. There are no acquisitions at all from contemporary art production. There were attempts and discussions about a museum of modern and contemporary arts. With 2000s, private sector decides to take it over. In Istanbul Modern, we haven’t yet been able to see exhibitions creating a discursive space of discussion on the experience of modernity in Turkey. Now there comes another privately run space starting with a modern art exhibition that cannot take place without the collection of state in Istanbul. The question that comes to mind immediately is why they didn’t try to rehabilitate and update the collection there but preferred taking the pieces to another private place. Knowing that the government pushed up for the earliest opening as possible for Santralistanbul, things get even more complicated.

The danger in the close future is art’s total taken over by private sector, made part of the show business. It looks like the state doesn’t want to get itself involved in cultural matters itself, changing itsown profile, rehabilitating state owned museums etc. It seems pushing private sector is easier. However, we need more neutral, independent, alternative agents in cultural sector, like the artists initiatives Apartman Projesi, pist, BAS, MASA, nomad in Istanbul and K2 in Izmir. All of these initiatives are operating in their own independent production spaces. We urgently need a public funding system to support the young production and to create that critical space between the financing bodies and arts and culture. That’s why we are trying to be optimists about 2010 process. Because it appears to be the only open funding body apart from the private funding. Why we need EU money for sustainable policy making in arts and culture is a critical question to be discussed since a deficiency in the system cannot be alleviated through some other support. ECoC project is designed for progression of culture and arts in the European cities –recently become a tourist attraction tool for smaller cities of Europe like Pec (Hungary) and has been hardly satisfactory in terms of the progression of independent, alternative organisations. It is the first time ECoC project will operate in such a big city like Istanbul, a megapolis. Being chosen for this project is shown differently in Turkey namely as a part of becoming European. What we can be sure of is that 2010 show will be good for tourism.

Conclusion

Istanbul Biennial has nurtured the contemporary arts in Turkey with new ideas and new questions in 20 years. Now it claims for its place among the most established biennials around the world. Istanbul has become a vital point in the international art network and contemporary art has become a more interesting investment for private business. Before things get too private in art, we should start to write, think and analyse this process we are experiencing in a constructive way. We need to work collaboratively for creating and sustaining alternative and fresh production and discussion. The construction of critical spaces where we can breathe needs to be realised urgently. As the so called cultural producers in Turkey, we should be more active in the decision making processes of public policies about art, in pushing forward for public funding bodies rather than accepting the status quo. This may only be realized through a collective effort on our side as artists, curators, exhibition producers and critiques.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

The Fakebook Generation

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/opinion/06mathias.html?th&emc=th

"My generation has long been bizarrely comfortable with being looked at, and as performers on the Facebook stage, we upload pictures of ourselves cooking dinner for our parents or doing keg stands at last night’s party; we are reckless with our personal information. But there is one area of privacy that we won’t surrender: the secrecy of how and whom we search.

A friend of mine was recently in a panic over rumors of a hacker application that would allow Facebook users to see who’s been visiting their profiles. She’d spent the day ogling a love interest’s page and was horrified at the idea that he knew she’d been looking at him. But there’s no way Facebook would allow such a program to exist: the site is popular largely because it enables us to indulge our gazes anonymously. (We might feel invulnerable in the spotlight, but we don’t want to be caught sitting in someone else’s audience.) If our ability to privately search is ever jeopardized, Facebook will turn into a ghost town."

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Radiohead New Album

http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex.html

nasyonal populist diskurun fetisi olarak kemalizm

MUGSF Dekani bundan bir hafta oncesinde Hanru'nun Bienal kavramsal çerçevesinde dile getirdiği yerinde okumalara karşı "cevval"ve "hassas" bir açıklama yaptı. Hepimizin kanını dondurdu. Türkiye'de akademi ve üniversite tanımlarının karşılığındaki durumlardan bir kere daha derinen şüphe etmemizi "sağolsun" sağladı. Sayın Dekan IKSV'nin verdiği cevaptan ve güncel sanat ortamından gelen tepkilerden sonra ortalarda görünmedi. Elmas Deniz'in Dekanlık'a attığı saglam emaile cevap geldi mi bilmiyorum. Artık birtakım kafalar elle tutulur yanı olmayan duruşlarının meşrulaştırması olarak sürekli aynı lafları temcitlemekten vazgeçmeli. Bu nasyonal populist diskurun sanat ortamı içinde de serpilmesinden sonsuz rahatsizim.

Konuyla ilgili birkaç şahane link:

Bu da Çin malı Dangalak
http://www.5n1khaber.com/haber_oku.php?id=3752

Çinli kuratör kendine gel evladım
http://www.ofpress.com/haber_detay.php?id=6403

Hürriyet Okur Yorumlari
http://haberyorumlari.hurriyet.com.tr/List.aspx?HaberID=7362464


Ooooofff off

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

interview with Valentina Sansone in Flash Art

LIST published in TA NEA, Athens













The List has been published in its complete form in "TA NEA" newspaper, on September 28.

As a collaboration with the 1st Athens Biennale and TA NEA the List has been published in its complete form of 16 pages and distributed as a supplement in the Greek daily newspaper on September 28th.

The List is a project that was started in 2003 as collaboration between the artist Banu Cennetoglu and curator Huib Haye van der Werf. The List itself is a document, which contains the names of more than 8855 (known) refugees who died within, or on the borders of Europe. It is compiled by the organization UNITED for Intercultural Action. During a previous installment in March 2007 The List was displayed as a poster campaign in 110 outdoor advertising signs throughout the city of Amsterdam.

For more info about Amsterdam display : www.the-list.info